Song
by Psychic Prince
Summary: AU; For Im Yong Soo, singing is a way for him to escape reality and live life. But after a terrible accident takes his voice away, will he ever be able to find his happiness again? Kimchiburger


**Hiya! I'm not really sure what to say... Well, this is my first try at an APH fanfic, so I guess that's exciting!**

**I just had this random idea for a fanfic and am gonna throw it out there for you guys to see... :3**

**Because this is an AU and I don't have experience in the APH fandom, please excuse the OOC-ness. D:**

**Of course, this is a Kimchiburger story, but there are probably gonna be other pairings, like there's Ameripan in the beginning and maybe I'll throw in RoChu... If I feel like it. ._.**

**I don't own anything.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Im Yong Soo had never been perfect at anything. He was a klutz, spoke without much thought, and, frankly, he was possessive and ignorant. But there was one thing that he was very good – no, wonderful – at. He loved doing it with all of his heart and soul, and he poured one hundred and ten percent of all of his effort into it, no matter what the situation. It was his source of true happiness, his source of life.

Music.

Singing.

Ever since he was young, Yong Soo had a strange ability to know the exact tune, key, and tempo of a song without having to look at a sheet of music, and he also had the ability to sing any type of song, whether it was slow, fast, or even jazzy.

He was a one-man band – being able to sing in several distinctly different voices was his specialty. His adoptive Japanese brother, Kiku, had always told him that he was considered a "trap singer", as he was able to sing in a low, husky bass as well as a high, feminine soprano. But it was his "normal" voice that captured most people's attention. Yong Soo had a distinct, clear voice that had a strange lilt and an easily recognizable purity and sweetness to it that none could imitate.

There was one other thing that made Yong Soo truly happy: Alfred F. Jones. But that one person in particular was highly unreachable to him. Alfred was Kiku's boyfriend, and they'd been together for as long as Yong Soo could remember. They were nearly inseparable. Yong Soo found this slightly unfair because that just meant that Alfred would never even glance at him, but he came to accept the fact that his brother was simply better than him; he was handsomer (and prettier, as a matter of fact), mild and even-tempered, very intelligent, polite, charming, un-annoying, elegant... The list could go on and on. And Yong Soo simply and firmly always told himself that his own list of bad traits outweighed his good ones.

And the only thing Yong Soo had that was better than Kiku was his voice only. But he preferred to keep his singing talent a secret from Alfred – after all, he didn't want to get hopeful after just a little compliment or two from him. It was better if he just kept quiet about it and continued being his obnoxious self in front of the energetic American. Even if it did make him dislike Yong Soo even more.

Despite his own personal issues, Yong Soo was planning to enter a singing competition in South Korea so that he could have a chance of being signed to one of the big companies there and become a K-Pop star. He'd always had a special love for Korean music and sang it often (although he did enjoy singing Japanese and Chinese songs for his family members as well).

Sitting back in his study chair, he sighed, "I have six whole months until the competition. Makes me anxious, da-ze."

Absentmindedly, he began to sing to himself as a result of habit, but was quickly interrupted when a loud voice called, "Yong Soo! Come down here, aru! I need you to run some errands for me!" It was Yao, his older brother. He, Kiku, and Yong Soo all lived together, but he wasn't sure whether or not that fact was either good or bad...

Both Yao and Yong Soo had a single uncontrollable verbal tic: Yao often said "aru" at the ends of his sentences, while Yong Soo said "da-ze" (although his verbal tic was never a problem while he was singing; it seemed to disappear altogether). It annoyed the hell out of Kiku, who didn't possess such a trait (although he did pronounce his L's like R's). But annoying the hell out of his brothers was what Yong Soo was born to do, so he didn't mind... that much.

Grumbling to himself, Yong Soo dragged himself out of his room to stumble down the stairs. "Yao-hyung [1], I don't wanna go, da-ze... You're probably gonna make me pick up some weird-smelling leaves from that thousand-year-old man down the street, da-ze..."

His adoptive Chinese brother turned around and scowled lightly. "They're not just leaves, aru – it's Chinese herbal medicine!"

"Whatever, I could be doing better things-"

"What, like singing _again_?"Yao said incredulously, waving his hands, "Do something useful for once, aru! If Kiku were here, he'd listen to me immediately; why can't you just be more like him, aru?!"

He handed Yong Soo a painstakingly long list, and sent – or rather, kicked – him out of the house to be on his way. Grumbling, he walked all the way to the open-air market that was held every Saturday. Along the way, he made up a little song that went something like this:

_Even if everyone tells me what to do,_

_Even if they don't know the real me,_

_Even if they don't see what I see..._

_I'll keep moving on-_

_Doing what I love most,_

_And just keep singing my song._

* * *

As he walked through the market, searching for the items on Yao's list, he couldn't help but enjoy the fresh air and freedom. Sometimes, people would stop and give him strange stares, which he was used to – it was hard not to feel intrigued whenever one saw the curl that stuck up from Yong Soo's hair. It appeared to have a face inside of it that corresponded with whatever mood he was in, not to mention it seemed to defy gravity. Yong Soo had long given up trying to smooth it down; it just sprang back up anyways.

Yong Soo had always considered himself decent-looking, yet not incredibly handsome. Sure, his deep brown eyes were big and always full of wonder, not to mention his wide smile was contagious, but he felt that everything else was pretty average; a slender body, rosy cheeks, tousled brown hair were just a few of the traits that he possessed, but he always told himself that he would forever be the ugly duckling next to his brothers.

Yao wasn't the tallest man, but he was certainly very wise-looking and had a gentle appearance about him. Yong Soo had always admired his older brother's gentleness (he himself had never really experienced Yao's kind words; Kiku would always be the one being praised and he'd always be causing trouble), not to mention _he _didn't have curls sticking up from his hair. Yao always strived for perfection, and it certainly showed in his appearance.

Kiku had an air of elegance that Yong Soo felt that he could never possess, not to mention his hair was forever neat and was always a gleaming black. Even if his eyes were quite soulless, his natural beauty outweighed that fact. When they were younger, people would always flock around Kiku, saying, "What a handsome/cute/beautiful child!" "So calm and elegant!" "What a perfect boy!" What's worse, they either all ignored Yong Soo or complained about his personality.

No wonder Yong Soo had a major inferiority issue.

As he was about to begin choosing out a few potatoes from the wide variety (Yao hadn't specified which kinds he'd wanted, so Yong Soo just thought he'd get sweet potatoes just to annoy him), a loud voice called out, "Yo, Yong Soo!"

Yong Soo froze in his tracks, and slowly turned around, his fears becoming reality.

Alfred was hurrying over towards him, holding hands with Kiku and dragging him through the crowds of people. Yong Soo could already hear Kiku: "Wait, Alfred-san! Not so fast!"

Frantically, he searched for a possible way to hide. Nowhere. Besides, Alfred had already seen him.

"A-Ah, Alfred-"

Finally letting go of Kiku's hand, Alfred clapped a hand over Yong Soo's back, nearly sending him flying into the nearest tent. "Korea-dude, what's up? Shopping for old Yao?"

After regaining his composure, Yong Soo grumbled, "Yeah, he kicked me out again, da-ze. Babo Yao-hyung..." [2]

"Yon Su," [3] Kiku said, a warning tone to his voice.

His eyebrow twitched in irritation. "Kiku-hyung, it's YONG SOO. Stop calling me by that weird Japanese name."

"Nande?" [4]

"Eh, I don't like it,"Yong Soo whined.

As if to break the tension between the brothers, Alfred stepped next to Kiku again and took him by the arm.

"Woah, guys, a little too intense here,"he said jokingly, "Wanna get something to eat?"

Kiku looked up at his boyfriend, his cheeks dusting a rare pink. Yong Soo felt a twinge of regretful jealousy, but he shoved it away – he didn't matter as much as Kiku mattered, right?

"Alfred-san, I swear, your belly is a bottomless pit,"he said softly, wrapping his own arm around the American's so that they were linked together.

And at that, Alfred laughed.

_Oh, God._

Simply put, Yong Soo had always thought that Alfred was just wonderfully beautiful. To him, he was like one of those princes from those shoujo manga that Kiku liked to read. Despite the fact that he obviously showed everyone that he loved Kiku, girls didn't hesitate to flock around him (okay, Alfred was a complete flirt sometimes). He had such a stunning smile, not to mention imaginary sparkles seemed to be everywhere he was. His hair just looked oh-so-soft, complete with a small cowlick, and those blue eyes beneath his glasses... Yong Soo didn't even know where to begin. He just loved _everything_ about Alfred... Which, in his case, didn't benefit him in the slightest.

Turning his head away, Yong Soo said cheerfully, "I need to finish my shopping, da-ze. I'll see you later, Alfred, Kiku-hyung!"

"Wait, Yong Soo!" Alfred quickly grabbed his arm as he was turning away. "How 'bout I come to your house then? I wanted to see Yao again anyways; it's been a while."

Yong Soo hesitated, but Kiku cut in and said quietly, "That would be wonderful, Alfred-san. I'm sure Yao-nii-san [5] would be happy to see you."

Inwardly, Yong Soo groaned, but he put on a convincing smile and said energetically, "That sounds great, Alfred! Come on over, da-ze!"

* * *

"Tadaima!" [6]

"Danyo-wa-seup-ni-da!" [7]

"Kiku! You're home, aru! Oh, you brought Alfred too? Come in, come in!"Yao said brightly, opening the door wide for the couple to step in. He was about to turn around when Yong Soo coughed loudly. "And Yong Soo,"he added hastily before scurrying away to properly greet his guest.

Yong Soo's shoulders slumped slightly, but he shrugged it off.

_It's not an uncommon occurrence... I mean, this happens like, everyday._

But it still kind of hurt him. Just a little bit.

Taking off his shoes and putting them at a disarray on purpose, he shuffled into the living room, where his brothers and his crush were having a great time. A low whistling sound echoed through the house, and Yao perked up.

"Yong Soo, can you get the tea, aru?"

"Sure, Yao-hyung!"he said in a fake voice, turning towards the kitchen to get some tea.

When he entered the living room again, this time balancing cups of tea on a tray, Alfred was absent. "Where's Alfred?"he asked nonchalantly, setting the cups down on the table.

"Oh, he just went to the restroom, aru. He'll be back,"Yao informed him, taking a cup of tea.

Yong Soo nodded, but he felt a strange prickling going down his spine – his intuition. Something was up. Something that involved his precious songs. He quickly set the tray down and sprinted upstairs, despite Yao's protests. He flung the door of his room open, only to find Alfred peering at his laptop and microphone (both of which he bought with his own money), listening to something with headphones on.

Yong Soo tapped Alfred's back and gave him a sharp stare. The American took the headphones off and grinned. "Yeah?"

"Just what are you doing, looking through my stuff, da-ze?"Yong Soo said icily, all of his "normal" cheerfulness gone.

"I was looking for the bathroom, and I just noticed your cool stuff here,"Alfred explained innocently, "And when I clicked on this one song, it sounded really awesome, so I decided to listen to it a little more. Who's the singer, by the way?"

Fumbling for an answer, Yong Soo grumbled, "Er, I... I don't know?"

Alfred's eyes shifted from the laptop, to the mic, then back to the laptop again. He slowly looked up at Yong Soo, the gears in his mind clicking like pieces of a puzzle. "Dude... Did _you _sing this?"

"A-Aniyo [8]! Why would you say that, da-ze?! It's nothing, nothing at all, da-ze!"

After blankly staring at him for a moment, Alfred declared, "I don't believe you. This singer-dude _has _to be you; I mean, it kinda sounds like you too." He slowly gave Yong Soo a triumphant glance and grinned, leaning back in the chair.

Yong Soo paled. Not only did Alfred listen to one of his covers to a song, he heard Yong Soo's _normal _voice, not one of his "variety voices". Of course Alfred would be able to know his voice; they'd been friends for ten years.

_Aw, crap_, Yong Soo cursed to himself silently. _How could I be so careless?_

Sighing, Yong Soo finally admitted, "Yes, that's me singing, da-ze. Happy?"

Alfred look thoroughly impressed and awed. "You're so good! Definitely, you're officially my favorite singer now!" He gave him a big thumbs-up and grinned.

In spite of himself, Yong Soo blushed all the way to the roots of his hairs.

* * *

Yong Soo whistled merrily as he walked downtown with Kiku walking slowly by his side. The smaller Japanese man noted that his brother's curl had a relatively happy face floating inside of it, and he sighed in a resigned way.

"Why are you sighing, grumpy-pants?"

Kiku gave Yong Soo a deadpan look. "Nani?" [9]

Yong Soo kept looking straight ahead as he shrugged. "Just asking, 'cause you sound stressed out, da-ze."

"Like you would care,"Kiku snorted, but he shook his head. "Deadlines are coming up, and the author that I'm supposed to be watching over is still unsure of her storyboard. That's all."

Yong Soo still refused to look at his brother. Kiku was an editor, a shoujo manga editor to be exact. Yong Soo wasn't sure why, but his brother seemed to have a special fondness for all of those sparkles, flowers, and lovey-dovey stories. In his opinion, it was a little weird, but hey, Kiku seemed to like his job a lot.

Yong Soo himself had always wanted to be a musician, but Yao had forced him to major in business, saying, "Music will not help you in the future, aru." He'd felt that this decision was unfair – after all, Kiku majored in art, and Yao had just been supportive and happy. But, as Yong Soo always told himself, life was just not fair sometimes, and he'd have to listen to what Yao said. He did manage to escape getting a stuffy old job, and instead did several small jobs, such as being a waiter at the restaurant down the street.

"As long as you like what you do, da-ze,"Yong Soo said, his voice coming out a little more strained than he wanted to.

Kiku didn't seem to notice, however, and just sighed again. They were nearing an extremely busy intersection on the street.

"So, Kiku-hyung, how's Alfred, da-ze?"Yong Soo asked nonchalantly, stopping at the crosswalk, "I know we saw each other a few days ago, but hey, we've been friends forever and-"

"Alfred-san is doing fine,"Kiku interrupted, holding a hand up, "Yon Su, you really do talk a lot."

Yong Soo frowned. "Kiku-hyung!"

"Eh? Now what?"

"It's _Yong Soo_!"

Kiku shrugged and looked away, staring at the blur of cars passing by. "What's wrong with a Japanese name?"

Yong Soo sniffed, his nose crinkling in dislike. "Because I'm a proud Korean, not _Japanese_,"he replied, spitting the last word out as if it were poison, "Would _you _like it if I gave you a Korean name, da-ze?"

"Eh..."

"See what I mean, da-ze?"

Kiku looked agitated now, which was rare to see. "Tch. Why are you so annoying?"

"I was _born _to be annoying, Kiku-hyung."

"Why can't you be more loveable or sweet or calm? People would certainly like you more,"Kiku grumbled in a small voice, but Yong Soo heard him.

"Well, I can't be perfect all the time like _you_,"he spat, "You think you're so great, all the time, don't you, da-ze?"

Kiku's eyebrows furrowed slightly. "No, Yon Su, it's really not like that -"

"I told you, it's _Yong Soo_! You're so uppity-uppity, but you can't even listen to how your own brother wants his name called, da-ze! You... You... _Ilbon saekki_!" [10]

Kiku's eyes widened in shock and, upon impulse, he stepped forward and hit his brother across the face. Sure, he wasn't strong enough to knock Yong Soo (who was taller and more powerful) down, but it was enough to send him stumbling backwards...

Into the street.

Realizing what he'd just done, Kiku gasped and moved forward to grab for Yong Soo, who seemed dazed at the moment. From then, everything seemed to go in slow motion: A loud screeching of tire sounds echoed through Kiku's mind as he watched his younger brother's eyes go wide, and he let out a shriek.

"YONG SOO!"

* * *

Alfred sat in the comforts of his own home, drowsily wondering what to do.

"So bored,"he yawned, crossing his arms.

An all-too-familiar voice with a heavy British accent called back, "Then get your lazy butt off the couch and do some work!"

"Aw, Iggy, that's no fun!"Alfred complained.

"Go out there instead of lazing around, you bloody wanker!"

Alfred huffed in protest. Arthur may have been his elder brother, but that didn't mean he liked to listen to him. He was bossy and no fun in Alfred's eyes, but he usually knew what he was doing (unless he totally spaced out and hallucinated about some Flying Mint Bunny...). But that didn't mean that Alfred didn't care for him – after all, he did practically raise him and hey, the dude had like... _five eyebrows_. Talk about epic.

Arthur's appeared at the room's doorway and glared at Alfred, who casually began fiddling with his phone. "Whatever you do, don't bother me. I'm trying to cook dinner for us."

Alfred nearly choked on his own spit. "W-Why would you wanna do that? Let's just go out and-"

"I'm tired of eating out."

"Iggy, just admit it. Your cooking totally sucks,"Alfred groaned dramatically as his brother huffed in annoyance.

"It's not _that _bad! Anyways, don't bother me until I call you for dinner!" Arthur turned around and made a point of walking loudly to show his irritation to Alfred.

Sighing, Alfred desperately searched for a way to escape eating dinner at home. He fiddled around some more with his phone until a brilliant idea came to his mind. Quickly, Alfred punched in some numbers onto the phone, and a familiar name showed up: Kiku.

If he didn't want to eat at home anyway, why not take his boyfriend out to a romantic dinner?

After about four rings, Kiku picked up, his voice coming out strained. "Moshi moshi?" [11]

"Hey Kiku! Do you think we can meet up for dinner?"

To Alfred's surprise, Kiku instantly refused, momentarily excusing himself to shout at another person in the background. It sounded like: "Any news yet? Yao-nii-san, please calm down!"

Kiku never, ever shouted. Ever. At that moment, Alfred knew that something was up. Something big.

"Kiku? What's going on?"Alfred quickly asked, gripping his phone tighter in his hand.

After a few more seconds of speaking in rapid Japanese to his brother (which Alfred did not understand at all), Kiku finally replied in a small voice, "There was an accident... We were walking and... I just got into a fight with him and... a car just ran into-"

Alfred practically shouted back, "Are you alright?!" He didn't stop to think about who Kiku was talking about – after all, it didn't really matter, right?

"A-Ano, hai..." [12]

Letting out a sigh of relief, Alfred sat back, his voice taking on a lighter tone. "That's great. Everything's fine then, right?"

Kiku didn't respond for a while – Alfred could faintly hear Yao sobbing in the background, saying something about having no voice.

_What the hell does that mean?_ Alfred pondered this thought silently until Kiku came back.

"Alfred-san, everything's not okay."

"What-"

Kiku let in a shaky breath and continued, "It's Yong Soo. He was in the accident... and is in a state of shock right now-"

Alfred gripped his phone even tighter until his knuckles turned white. Arthur came in at that moment and stood silently by the door, aware that his brother was actually being serious for once.

"Kiku... Is he okay?"

Another deathly long pause.

"Alfred-san..."

Jumping up from his seat, Alfred nearly yelled into the phone, "Is he okay or not?! Answer me!" From his peripheral vision, he could see Arthur had noticeably jumped half a foot into the air at his sudden outburst.

Kiku's voice was even quieter as he answered his boyfriend's question.

"Yong Soo... He's gone mute."

* * *

**What do you think? I feel like I failed orz. DX**

**Translations:**

**1. Hyung: honorific for "older brother" in Korean**

**2. Roughly: "Stupid Yao."**

**3. Yon Su: The Japanese equivalent of Yong Soo's name**

**4. Why**

**5. Nii-san: honorific for "older brother" in Japanese**

**6. Roughly: "I'm home" or "I'm back" in Japanese**

**7. Roughly: "I'm home" or "I'm back" in Korean**

**8. No**

**9. What**

**10. Roughly: "Japanese bastard"**

**11. Japanese greeting on the phone**

**12. Um, yes**

**Forgive me if I got anything wrong... **

**I'll try to update soon! OwO**

**Please review!  
**

**- Psychic**


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